ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter "ITOCHU") announced today that it has developed a digital transformation solution designed to help companies identify marketing challenges and achieve improvements in a cohesive manner based on data. This solution is now being provided to the Group companies. ITOCHU aims to expand its own market-oriented perspective and that of its Group companies while improving the efficiency of their marketing activities.

ITOCHU's management policy states, "Profit opportunities are shifting downstream."^*1 ITOCHU's business is transforming from a market-oriented perspective focused on identifying the complex and diverse needs of consumers, buyers and sellers while increasing its understanding of customers. In 2018, ITOCHU created Data Lake, a company-wide integrated data platform. Following this, the company established the BICC,^*2 an organization focused on data analysis. ITOCHU has been comprehensively analyzing and utilizing both internal data related to sales activities and external data, including market conditions, geographical information and data from consumer surveys and social media. Through these efforts, ITOCHU has been enhancing the marketing capabilities of all of the staff in the sales and administrative divisions and striving to create business.

ITOCHU is launching the Marketing Miru, Toku, Mawasu Service (MKT Mi-To-Ma Service). In Japanese, miru, toku and mawasu mean see, solve and run, respectively. The goal of this service is to enhance the overall marketing capabilities of the ITOCHU Group and to expand its market-oriented perspective which supports sustainable growth. ITOCHU will thoroughly evaluate its Group companies' processes to create and implement strategies and initiatives that address their marketing challenges, as well as internal and external conditions related to data usage. The company will then propose improvement measures aimed at achieving effective and efficient marketing activities.

This service will evaluate and identify marketing challenges in about one month. It will propose activities for preparing data and improving business in line with the companies' situations, supporting their businesses. The in-house production team in the IT & Digital Strategy Division (a headquarters division)^*3 will provide unique and impartial assessments. After assessing and identifying challenges, ITOCHU will provide seamless support for improvements in collaboration with BrainPad Inc. and ITOCHU INTERACTIVE CORP., both of which are part of ITOCHU's digital business group. ITOCHU will continue to regularly assess improvements and help companies enhance their capabilities, aiming to implement data-driven marketing.

ITOCHU seeks to enhance its points of direct contact with consumers and improve the efficiency of its sales channels by adopting a more market-oriented perspective, thereby increasing the value of the ITOCHU Group.